This invention relates to tank valves for tank-type toilets and more particularly to a tank valve adapted to regulate and minimize the amount of water utilized in flushing.
Conservation of water has become recognized as of late to be of considerable importance, especially in urban areas. While perhaps this concern was precipitated in recent years by extended periods of drought, the concern with water conservation is now recognized as an ever-present one in conjunction with a general spirit of conservation of all natural resources.
A major source of over-consumption of water is the tank-type toilet which is used almost universally. The tank of a tank-type toilet provides a reservoir of water typically 5 to 8 gallons. Such toilets contain a tank valve which sits upon a valve seat disposed in the exit port at the bottom of the tank. When the toilet lever is manually actuated, the tank valve is lifted off the valve seat permitting the water in the tank to drain through the exit port to the toilet. The tank valve is designed to contain an air pocket and therefore remains open during flushing/draining due to the buoyancy resulting from the air pocket. Thus the valve resists closure despite the downward movement of the water level in the tank. It is not until the water level drops to a level adjacent the valve seat that the tank valve, now without water to buoy it, drops back in place over the valve seat, thereby closing the exit port. A float attachment in the tank being downwardly displaced as the water level recedes with flushing, actuates a water inlet valve which fills the tank with water. Return of the float to a predetermined position, caused by the rising water level in the tank, closes the inlet water valve.
It is known, however, that satisfactory toilet operation does not in most cases, especially where simply liquid waste is involved, require flushing with the full complement of water contained in the toilet tank. Hence, water conservation can be practiced by regulating the amount of water used in flushing. Of course, when solid waste is involved, it is desirable to then employ the full tank of water during flushing.
To this end, there have been a number of prior art devices attempting to achieve regulating flushing. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,618 to Weigand, issued May 22, 1973 utilizes a check valve on the flush valve for bleeding air therefrom and thereby hasten its closure of the valve seat. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,250 to Coglitore, issued Jan. 7, 1975, describes a plastic tube for bleeding air from the tank valve to a point above the water level in the tank; U.S. Pat. No. 2,883,675 to Hartman, issued Apr. 28, 1959, describing a flush tank valve whose byoyancy can be regulated; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,940,084 to Fabbi, et al., is issued June 14, 1960, describing a double flush valve assembly.
Examples of tank valves may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,015,614 to Burnes, issued Sept. 24, 1935; U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,218 to Gross, issued Apr. 23, 1963; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,348 to Gresham, issued June 8, 1965. In the patent to Gross there is disclosed a ball-type tank valve having a 1/8-inch hole in the stem thereof to provide stability to the valve to insure proper seating of the valve in the valve seat after complete flushing. In the Burnes Patent, a bulb-type valve is described having an air escape port therein to permit the valve to be weighted with water by the time the tank water has almost run out so as to obtain proper seating of the valve.
The prior art methods and devices for operating tank-type toilet to regulate the amount of water used in flushing suffer from the disadvantage of being relatively complicated and/or requiring substantial alteration of the tank valve assembly or the linkage used in manual actuation thereof.